GFCI Protection in 2 different bathrooms

I'm doing a complete home rewiring and am doing everything to code (I hope at least because it will be inspected). Not being an electrician, I have 2 specific questions that I could not find in my books.

1) I have 2 small bathrooms, 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs, that I am wiring on the same 20 amp circuit. The lighting in these bathrooms will be on a different "general lighting" circuit because I know you can only wire 2 bathrooms together if the lighting is seperate. Should I only use 1 GFCI outlet in the bathroom that is first in the circuit? I know the outlets in both bathrooms would still be GFCI protected in this case, but you would have to go upstairs if you needed to reset it. Is this allowed or do you need a new GFCI outlet in each room?

2) I am installing an exhaust fan over the shower in the one bathroom. Should I tie this in with the "general lighting" circuit or does it need to be GFCI protected? If it needs GFCI protection, can I use the same 20 amp line that I used for the outlets in both bathrooms? Which direction should I take for wiring the exhaust fan??

1. You can use a single GFCI receptacle in the first bathroom, or you can use a GFCI receptacle in each bathroom. I would place one in each bathroom. It makes it much easier to find in the event it trips. There are numerous posts here all the time for someone not realizing that the GFCI they need to reset is located somewhere else.

2. You cannot tie this into the GFCI circuit serving the bathroom receptacles, since that circuit will be serving two different bathrooms. This fan does not need to be GFCI protected. Just be careful that you donít overload the general lighting circuit you are using.

I agree with what Bob said, but I would probably just use one GFCI. If you do things right, the GFCI should rarely if ever trip, so the inconvenience of walking up (or down) stairs to reset it should be neglibible. And although it is mind-boggling that so many people don't even know what a GFCI is, you do, so the "I don't understand why this outlet is dead" problem won't be an issue for you.

If the fan is actually OVER the shower the manufacturers instructions will most likely call for GFI protection. To install it without GFI protection if called for would be a Code violation. Look at the label inside the fan housing or the installation instructions.

You could still accomplish this by adding a GFI to the 15 amp general lighting circuit.

Note that if you do want (or need) to GFCI protect the fan that you may not install a GFCI receptacle in the bathroom to do so. You may GFCI protect the circuit with a breaker, or or install a GFCI receptacle in some other room or the hall, or you may install a faceless GFCI.

The fan is directly above the shower and the fan does says it needs to be on a GFCI outlet. So, this leads to my two questions. Does anyone make a switch, preferably a timer switch, that has GFCI built in? The only thing I can find in my searches is a combination outlet/switch.

If not, would it be exceptable to add a GFCI receptacle in the bathroom to the general lighting circuit? This bathroom is wired with a 2nd bathroom, so I kept the lighting on a seperate circuit. If I add a GFCI outlet to protect the fan swith, it would be on the same circuit as the lights in several other rooms (but I would still have 2 outlets in the bathroom that are ONLY bathroom outlets).

This code stuff gets very complicated with all these little details. Thanks so much for everyone's help!

You cannot add a GFCI receptacle to the bathroom to protect this fan (see my post above that says this).

Your choices are to use a GFCI switch or place the GFCI receptacle in some other location (hallway, bedroom, etc.). A GFCI switch is sometimes called a faceless GFCI. It has GFCI circuitry, a test and a reset button, and sometimes a switch built in.